"I see. So to her, that 'disciple' was a taboo subject that triggered her ultimate wrath."
"Yes, Lord Strategist. I am deeply sorry for this outcome..."
"No, no, it is perfectly fine. That information alone is worth a thousand pieces of gold. Now then, please take your time to recuperate and heal. ...I have another matter to attend to, so I shall take my leave here."
With those words, he switched off the magical communication tool. This was the border between the Heed Kingdom and the Nagan Kingdom. Having judged that remaining on this border was optimal for the execution of the strategies he had formulated, the Strategist had set up a temporary command post to receive information.
The report just now came from an operative continuing espionage activities within the Imperial Capital—a highly talented individual scouted from the Empire's civilian population. In fact, the Strategist had been scheming to poach this exceptionally talented individual to serve as a "Special Tactical Force"... but it seemed the operation had failed in a manner that bordered on the absolute worst-case scenario. The target this time was a woman who had been active as a gladiator until just the other day. She possessed the strength to step into the middle or even upper echelons among the Special Tactical Forces, yet she had not explicitly aligned herself with any faction.
She was a highly alluring prospect, which was why he had issued directives to the operatives acting within the Empire.
The result, however, was a failure. While they managed to avoid a situation where Nagan's identity was exposed, the low-level organizations involved, their directors, and every single operative—save for the lone spy who had just transmitted the information—had been completely wiped out. For a Special Tactical Force, she was supposed to be mild-mannered and reasonable. Therefore, he had instructed his subordinates to approach her and cultivate goodwill toward Nagan... but unfortunately, the low-level operatives went rogue. Relying primarily on local underground syndicates and radical nobles had backfired catastrophically.
(They attempted to lay their hands on her 'disciple'—who was both her weakness and her ultimate trigger.)
The exact instant they did, the low-level organization was quite literally reduced to ashes. Furthermore, 'Duchess Henrietta'—one of the Empire's Special Tactical Forces who was apparently close to the target—intervened. Thanks to the spy who had moved while anticipating the absolute worst, they managed to at least secure the information... but it was a situation where it wouldn't have been surprising if the Empire had declared war on them right then and there.
The moment that happened, two Special Tactical Forces would undoubtedly march into their lands. Within a few hours of the outbreak of war, their country would be turned into scorched earth, and the nation of Nagan would be wiped from the map. It was a terrifyingly close call. Coupled with the recent "Ostrich" incident, the Strategist found himself unable to let go of his stomach medicine. It really wasn't funny anymore.
"Probing any deeper means death. I must refrain from excessive interference for the time being."
If he had been able to travel to the Empire himself, he might have successfully engineered the defection. However, the continent was currently in utter turmoil. If his country were invaded while he was away, they would undoubtedly lose several territories. In this war-torn world, a reduction in national might meant death; hence, he could not leave Nagan.
Furthermore, he had to handle that matter as well.
"...Alright, let us shift our focus. Fortunately, things are progressing smoothly on this front."
The existence currently drawing his interest was the "Ostriches" and the "Heed Kingdom." They were a Special Tactical Force that had suddenly manifested in that country, an opponent whose true strength remained completely ungraspable. Because they were classified as a Special Tactical Force as a collective flock, he had been devizing schemes to drive a wedge between them... but usable information was still at zero. On the contrary, Alan—the spy he had infiltrated—had been driven into a state where he was permanently unfit for service.
"Their leader, the woman named Lais... she may be quite a formidable player."
In that case, he needed to alter his approach.
The military alliance concluded with Heed was meant to prevent Nagan from being invaded. He took the information obtained at the Heed Capital for the purpose of forging this treaty, weighed it against the Special Tactical Forces scattered across the neighboring countries and the personalities of each nation's monarch, and formulated a scheme that was currently in motion. All that was left was to wait for the pieces he had set on the board to move exactly as he intended.
Yes. If he could not enact a plot against the collective entity known as the "Ostriches," then he simply had to stir up the environment surrounding them.
"Furthermore, just as the prior intelligence indicated, that Queen seemed entirely consumed by vengeance. To be frank, using a child who has fallen into such a state pricks my conscience... but this, too, is for the sake of the nation."
The instant the vengeance-driven King of Heed secured military power, he would manipulate her through strategy and unerringly hurl her at her mortal enemy. Her expression the very first time she locked eyes with him—she was undoubtedly counting him as nothing more than a military asset. Her sole reason for forging the military alliance was likely to throw him at the Charda Beast Kingdom the moment they invaded, using him to exact her revenge.
And her reaction upon seeing the "Ostriches" would surely be the same. Just as other nations harboring Special Tactical Forces forged contracts with them, she too would forge a contract. And since the young Queen was sharp enough to see through his "surface-level justification," sending the ostriches to the battlefield would not be impossible for her.
"After all, I did offer a bit of advice through the ministers surrounding her."
Thanks to the information transmitted by Alan before his retirement, he had managed to deepen his hazy understanding of the existence known as "Lais."
She appeared to prioritize the safety of her mercenary group above all else... but given that she had concluded the "Contract" under "Ostrich-favorable terms," her personality dictated that she would almost certainly not refuse the first outbreak of war. She understood reason, and while she likely had her own desires, the intelligence suggested she was the type to prioritize the profit and survival of the "Ostrich Mercenary Group."
If appealed to strongly enough, she would undoubtedly nod.
"Furthermore, if it is a standard battlefield where no Special Tactical Force is present, she will be even more inclined to do so."
Without knowing what lies in wait for them there... as the saying goes.
"I shall hurl the 'Ostriches' against the 'Beast King'—the pride of the Charda Beast Kingdom."
Regardless of which side emerged victorious, no disadvantage would arise for Nagan. After all, he had engineered the situation to ensure exactly that.
If the Beast King won, though he was indeed a Special Tactical Force, his strength was only in the middle tier of that class. Furthermore, his battle styles and the techniques he utilized were almost entirely exposed to foreign nations. Granted, he was a Special Tactical Force precisely because he possessed the power to push through even with his hand revealed...
"But it is not as if we have failed to devise countermeasures against him."
It was true that Nagan's prized Magic Corps had been lost. However, they were originally a military force meant for use against the Empire. In other words, countermeasures against other nations—the surrounding countries existing on this continent—had already been drafted. Neutralizing the completely exposed Beast King would not be simple, per se, but it was entirely possible.
And given the geographical layout, the battleground dictated by the military alliance would be the Heed Kingdom. Expenses other than troop deployment would be borne by the other party, and once the Beast King was slain, that young Queen would cease to be of any practical use. He would make arrangements for her to live a life appropriate for her age, and then annex the Heed Kingdom into Nagan. The preparations for that were already complete.
"And it matters not if the 'Ostriches' emerge victorious either."
Even if they won, their opponent was the Beast King. His strength was considerable, fitting for a middle-tier Special Tactical Force. There was no way a flock of three hundred could escape completely unscathed. Their numbers would undoubtedly dwindle.
Furthermore, it would allow them to comprehend their method of fighting, as well as Lais's commanding ability.
He had placed multiple operatives within the Heed Kingdom's military. By having one of them accompany the ostriches, they would learn how the flock fought. Because not a single person had returned from the previous invasion of Plaque, they had been unable to obtain any information. At this juncture, they would definitely secure that data.
"And since we have a military alliance... I suppose I must make an appearance myself."
Now that the Charda Beast Kingdom had commenced their invasion, Nagan was obligated to deploy troops for a defensive war. Furthermore, if the opponent was a Special Tactical Force, it would be bad manners not to deploy a Special Tactical Force of their own. In other words, this would grant him an opportunity to interact with the ostriches directly. And he could safely aim to cultivate their goodwill as well.
"There, I shall learn of their character, and if possible, poach them over to our country. Their 'human-supremacist' outlook will prove troublesome, but... there are ways to handle it."
Well, that was the general shape of things. Either way, the Beast King would be exiting the stage at this juncture. He did not know what would become of the Beast Kingdom afterward... but that nation possessed a vast granary region—a territory he wished to secure if possible. Although it harbored a larger population of beastmen than Heed, making it somewhat incompatible with their country... when the time came, they would simply have to conduct a thorough "cleaning."
"Lord Strategist."
"Yes, what is it?"
"A report from our scouts hidden near the border of the Heed Kingdom and the Charda Beast Kingdom. The Beast King has personally taken command of his troops and commenced the invasion."
"...Understood. Instruct them to continue investigating the breakdown of their military forces as they are."
"Yes, sir!"
...Now then, I wonder which way the scales will tip.
◇◆◇◆◇
The scene shifts to the border region of the Heed Kingdom.
There stood the figure of the Beast King, marching forward alongside a massive host of beastmen.
Before explaining his character, let us first describe the Charda Beast Kingdom.
Located to the east of the Heed Kingdom, this nation possessed incredibly fertile territories, making it one of the preeminent agricultural nations on the continent. It was inhabited primarily by beastmen, whose caloric intake was far greater than that of humans, and the rich land served to fill their bellies. If Nagan was a nation centered around humans, Charda was a nation centered around beastmen. And Heed, sandwiched between them, existed in a relationship as a multi-ethnic state that tolerated both.
Speaking of Nagan, its extreme "human-supremacist" ideology was famous. Consequently, one might wonder if the beastman-centric Charda Beast Kingdom was the same in reverse, but that was not the case. They did not discriminate against humans; rather, they treated them with a toxic form of equality.
Perhaps due to the values shared by many beastmen, the Charda Beast Kingdom possessed a strong mindset of submitting to the strong, making it a pure meritocracy. The weak were stripped of everything, while the strong took everything for themselves. Beastmen, whose physical capabilities were fundamentally superior to humans, were perpetually the strong, while humans were the weak. Of course, the reverse occurred as well, but they had a history of constantly moving with the strongest individual as their leader.
In short, the strongest person in the Kingdom was chosen as their King.
Yes—a Special Tactical Force.
The man hailed as the Beast King. His name was 'Si,' the king of beasts—a lion beastman.
Born into this world possessing the unique ability 'Fortitude'—an anomaly that granted no effect other than making his body incredibly sturdy—he fortunately also possessed a talent for magic. Furthermore, he possessed an abundant pool of mana, which was rare for a beastman, as they typically held relatively low magical capacity in exchange for their high physical prowess. Born into a certain slum of the Beast Kingdom, he understood a world where the weak had no choice but to be plundered, and he continuously accumulated power to become one of the strong, eventually ascending to the throne.
Furthermore, he possessed not only raw power but also the capacity to think.
While he was inspecting the granary region—the foundation of the Charda Beast Kingdom's national might—a piece of disastrous news reached him: the military alliance between Nagan and Heed. Boasting transcendent physical capabilities, Charda's military was known to be incredibly elite, even though they suffered from the flaw of being difficult to organize. They were potent enough to easily crush a small nation like the Heed Kingdom, which possessed no Special Tactical Force of its own.
(But a nation cannot be ruled merely by attacking.)
However, there was a reason why the Beast King had refrained from marching until now: the buffer zone. The compatibility between Nagan, a nation that flaunted a human-supremacist ideology, and the Charda Beast Kingdom was catastrophically awful. From Nagan's perspective, sentiments like "Those filthy beastmen are preying upon humans! Therefore, they must be destroyed!" were frequently voiced. Meanwhile, from the Charda Beast Kingdom, views like "A governing system ruled by nobles who possess no real strength is fundamentally wrong! It must be restored to its proper form!" overflowed.
If they clashed, what awaited them was a brutal brawl until one side collapsed. Understanding the sheer troublesome nature of the "Strategist" that Nagan prided itself on, the Beast King had avoided conflict by maintaining Heed as a buffer zone. To alleviate domestic dissatisfaction and the restlessness of the hot-blooded beastmen, he had frequently attacked the Heed Kingdom, but he never pushed so far as to make the nation's survival untenable. He had repeated that cycle for a very long time.
But that balance was now shattering.
For Heed to forge a military alliance with Nagan meant nothing less than the buffer zone ceasing to serve its purpose. And above all, Heed was a producer of high-quality monster materials. While it possessed no mighty individual classified as a Special Tactical Force, soldiers armed with monster materials were quite troublesome. And such troublesome soldiers were now going to be orchestrated by a "Strategist"? It was nothing short of a nightmare for the Beast Kingdom.
They might be fine for the moment, but the situation would deteriorate with every passing day. Having effectively raised its national might through the military alliance, Heed would mass-produce monster equipment, and Nagan would use that gear to augment its military forces. In short, time was the enemy.
(Therefore, we must strike with a blitzkrieg before both nations can reinforce themselves. At the very least, we must capture and annex the Heed Capital...)
There was another underlying source of anxiety that drove the Beast King's urgency: the birth of a new Special Tactical Force. Though it was something the Beast King could not verify, the rumor brought by Nagan's spies struck terror into his heart. The Beast King understood perfectly well that he was not particularly powerful among the Special Tactical Forces. He possessed only enough strength to be overtaken depending on the talent of a rising Special Tactical Force, and he had no further room for growth.
In the nation located to the northeast of the Beast Kingdom, there resided the 'Strongest' Special Tactical Force on this continent. The Beast King had once challenged that individual to battle, only to suffer a crushing defeat without managing to inflict so much as a single scratch. Consequently, he understood through firsthand experience that he was merely "middle-tier" among the Special Tactical Forces.
In other words, he recognized the possibility that he might suffer defeat at the hands of the new Special Tactical Force born in Heed.
During the previous conflict with the Heed Kingdom, the war had concluded in the form of a duel between the monarchs of both nations. It was a battle born from the alignment of Heed's desire to "prevent any further sacrifices" and his own intention to "avoid weakening Heed more than necessary." By slaying the previous King, the Beast Kingdom had secured victory, settling the matter after extracting a reasonable sum of reparations... but through rumors, the Beast King knew that the next ruler—the daughter of the previous King—harbored a deep, burning hatred for him.
(The standard tactic is to counter a Special Tactical Force with a Special Tactical Force. In other words, if I take the field, the enemy will undoubtedly deploy theirs as well.)
The existence of a Special Tactical Force was certainly powerful, but one could not survive within that classification merely by being strong. A "Special Tactical Force" was defined as such precisely because they continued to grow. No matter what kind of battle it was, they would survive and undeniably emerge stronger than they were the day before. To definitely defeat an opponent who had beaten you once during your next encounter—that was the correct form of a monster in this world.
In short, now that a Special Tactical Force had been born in Heed, it would be disastrous if he did not slay them immediately. If they grew to a point where he could no longer win, that young Queen, consumed by a desire for vengeance, would murder him in her wrath and consume the Beast Kingdom whole.
That was what the Beast King believed.
Without knowing that everything was dancing entirely within the palm of the hand of the "Strategist," the Special Tactical Force Nagan prided itself on...
"Your Majesty! Enemy forces detected ahead! They appear to be the defense force of the enemy stronghold!"
"I see them. Cavalry, is it?"
Listening to his subordinate's report, the Beast King focused his mana-enhanced eyes on the distance. In his line of sight, a cavalry unit numbering nearly a hundred was indeed visible. The troops the Beast King had brought with him this time numbered thirty thousand. Furthermore, the towering defensive wall looming ahead was a massive defensive stronghold built by the Heed Kingdom specifically for the war against the Beast Kingdom. Inside defensive walls, cavalry could not utilize their strengths. Therefore, they were likely charging with suicidal resolve, attempting to buy even a fraction of time.
(I could crush them myself, but doing so would cause dissatisfaction to build among the troops.)
The soldiers belonging to the military were mostly beastmen whose lineages traced back to carnivorous animals. Perhaps due to their fierce temperaments, many possessed personalities that relished combat. And perhaps swept up in that atmosphere, even beastmen of naturally non-aggressive species had grown to relish blood. While they were soldiers who exhibited immense capability in battle, right now, this was a race against time to see how quickly they could reach the enemy Capital.
Having entrusted them with clearing out border guards and the like up until they reached this defensive stronghold, their "appetite" should have calmed down to some extent, but if it exploded, they would lose coordination. It was entirely possible for him to flatten everything alone, but if he did, what remained would only be a barren wasteland. That was by no means the image of a King.
Therefore, the Beast King intended to distract his troops by ordering them to assault the cavalry and the defensive stronghold, planning to simply sit back as a King on this spot... when—
(...っ!!!!!!!!!!)
He perceived a colossal, overwhelming presence of mana. Furthermore, it was located at a considerable distance.
Precisely because he was a Beast King whose mastery over magic was profound enough to be classified as a Special Tactical Force, he could comprehend it. The source of the mana was incredibly far away—easily a distance equivalent to the Heed Capital from here. And yet, he felt that pressure, that colossal mana, for a single instant. It belonged, without a doubt, to a "Special Tactical Force."
It was a disparity in mana so completely segregated that it made his own magical power seem like nothing more than a tiny ant.
In an instant, terror flooded his chest.
"...Messenger."
"Yes, sir! Shall I issue the annihilation order?!"
"Clear out from front of me immediately."
"っっっっっ!!!!!! E-EVACUATEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!"
The exact instant the beastman messenger shrieked, the faces of the soldiers he led were instantly dyed in terror. The gap between the Beast King and themselves was just that immense.
Hailed by the surrounding nations as the 'Beast King,' his combat style consisted of pure, unadulterated magical offense. While his transcendent physical capabilities as a lion beastman, combined with his colossal mana pool and innate mana control, made him worthy of being called a Special Tactical Force through raw physical prowess alone, that was not his full power.
Utilizing a mere 1 point of mana to draw out an effect of 100—the pure violence of raw magical power unleashed through that overwhelming mana control. That was the 'Beast King.'
"Suuu..."
Inhaling lightly, the Beast King began to circulate the mana within his body. Simultaneously, his massive fangs—the pride of a lion—snapped open, and mana began to coalesce within. It was a sphere no larger than a tiny marble, but the density of the compressed mana inside was nothing short of an anomaly. The black sphere, which made one think of a black hole capable of swallowing everything, was generated by the Beast King's breath...
And unleashed.
The sphere discharged from the Beast King's mouth transformed into an aurora of pure light, piercing through everything in its path. The cavalry unit that had stood up to protect their country from the demonic clutches of the Beast Kingdom vanished in an instant, vaporized into nothingness. The defensive stronghold situated behind them—a ten-meter-high stone wall constructed by the Heed Kingdom over the span of more than a decade—along with the three thousand soldiers stationed inside, the stronghold facilities, and the siege weaponry, were all completely erased.
When the dust settled, the massive defensive stronghold that had sprawled before his eyes was gone. All that remained was a deeply gouged trench in the earth, carved out by the attack unleashed by the Beast King.
"Issue orders to the entire army. We march directly to the Heed Capital as we are."
The Ostrich Victims Association has begun to warm up.